Government and business reporter

The Athens-Clarke County District Attorney has asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into funds associated with the local government’s solid waste department.

GBI Special Agent Mike Ayers said he received the request Friday and wouldn’t be able to start examining the issue until Monday. He would not discuss the nature of the request more fully.

District Attorney Ken Mauldin and Athens-Clarke County Manager Alan Reddish did not return phone messages left on Friday.

David Ellison, a downtown lawyer, discovered a non-government activities account tied to Solid Waste Department Director Jim Corley last month that sparked an internal investigation by the local government. Rep. Regina Quick, R-Athens, and a lawyer sharing an office with Ellison, forwarded that information to the district attorney.

The primary purpose of the account, dubbed the ACSW Activity Fund, was to pay for employee appreciation events, according to the documents.

Bank statements show thousands of dollars moving in and out of the account over a number of years. The records were incomplete, but showed some being used for an employee cookout, coffee and snacks, gift cards for employees of the quarter and more, including $150 written to Terrapin Brewery to pay for glasses for an event and another went to the Downtown Athens Parking System, apparently to pay for a parking ticket.

The account was usually funded by vending machines in a employee-only parts of government property, according to a memo from Reddish. Corley had deposited nearly $1,200 into the account in February from the sale of scrap metal, money which should have gone to the government, according to records. He returned the money after the issue was raised, according to Reddish’s memo.

There was a draft policy, circulated before Corley was named the department’s director, allowing for proceeds from employee-only vending machines to be held on behalf of employees, though it was never adopted administratively or by the mayor and commission.

Ellison said he was happy to hear a third-party might look at the department’s funds.

“I’m glad that an independent agency is investigating this because I don’t think the manager’s office is equipped to handle an investigation of this scope and magnitude,” Ellison said.

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